cvii
The Washerwoman's Song
I wash'd them out & wash'd them in,
And they told me it was a great sin.
MS. Book, p. 42. Only in EY i. 224. Possibly a reference to Blake's
manner of using water-colour. Cp. the allusion to ' water ' in an epigram on
the preceding page of the MS. Book, civ, 1. 7.
cviii
1 When I see a Rubens, Rembrandt, Correggio,
I think of the Crippled Harry and Slobbering Joe ;
And then I question thus : Are artists' rules
To be drawn from the works of two manifest fools ?
5 Then God defend us from the Arts I say !
Send Battle, Murder, sudden death, O pray!
Rather than be such a blind Human Fool
I'd be an Ass, a Hog, a Worm, a Chair, a Stool !
MS. Book, p. 43. DGR, WMR (' Epig.' 4 and x), EY iii. 86.
1 When . . . Correggio] Seeing a Rembrandt or Correggio DGR, WMR;
When I see a Rembrandt or Correggio MS. Book 1st rdg. del., EY.
2 I . . . Joe] Of crippled Harry I think and slobbering Joe DGR, WMR;
I think of crippled Harry, or slobbering Joe EY. 3 question thus] say
to myself MS. Book 1st rdg. del., EY. 6 Send] For DGR, WMR.
O] we MS. Book 1st rdg. del., EY ; let's DGR, WMR. 7 blind] EY
omit. 8 an Ass] EY omit. Cp. Descriptive Catalogue, pp. 56-59 :
' Rubens is a most outrageous demon, and by infusing the remembrances
of his Pictures and style of execution, hinders all power of individual
thought ; so that the man who is possessed by this demon loses all admira-
tion of any other Artist but Rubens, and those who were his imitators and
journeymen : he causes to the Florentine and Roman Artist fear to execute,
and though the original conception was all fire and animation, he loads it
with hellish brownness, and blocks up all its gates of light, except one, and
that one he closes with iron bars, till the victim is obliged to give up the
Florentine and Roman practice, and adopt the Venetian and Flemish.
' Correggio is a soft and effeminate and consequently a most cruel demon,
whose whole delight is to cause endless labour to whoever suffers him to
enter his mind. The story that is told in all Lives of the Painters, about
Correggio being poor and but badly paid for his Pictures, is altogether false ;
he was a petty Prince, in Italy, and employed numerous Journeymen in
manufacturing (as Rubens and Titian did) the Pictures that go under his
name. The manual labour in these Pictures of Correggio is immense, and
Q 2
